Aristotle suggested in his Metaphysics that 'All men by nature desire to know,' but the enquiring, questioning, philosophical being is, in a crucial dimension, the anxious being. Anxiety then, rather than being a pathology, is an essential human disposition that leaads us to enquire into the great, unsolvable mysteries that confront us; to philosophise is to acknowledge a crucial and animating anxiety that drives enquire onword ... philosophy itself is an acute expression of our anxiety: "I'm anxious, therefore i enquire." Our theories of the world, our illuminations of the unknown, are our antifoes to this anciety. – Samir Chopra - "Anxiety isn't a Pathology"

• It seems anxiety is more often a wasting of present energy on a future outcome that is undesireable to me.
• if fear is the real adaptive response to a real danger than anxiety is not fear
• Here is a distinction I've found useful recently: You are anxious about something if the emotion attaches to the uncertainty in the situation, you are worried about something if the emotion attaches to the possible outcomes.
• we have social patterns for diffusing anxiety
  • this thing that is inducing anxiety has been pointed to with the concept of das-ding
• In Heidegger, fear reveals the thing to be feared in a fuller way than theory can. However, anxiety is distinct from fear, for while fear is directed towards a specific thing within the world, anxiety is anxious about existence itself, disclosing the totality of Being.
  • lacan say that anxiety is induces by das-ding which come about through othering an other that we never can fully know

Lookup

• DIY: Ancient anxiety medicine.
• Anxiety vs Worry
• THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANXIETY